After nearly a decade operating on behalf of Aer Lingus, Stobart Air ceases operations this morning; Aer Lingus terminated the contract with immediate effect. All flights are cancelled.
The airline had been trying to arrange a buyout by other parties, but this has obviously fallen through.
Aer Lingus had chosen a paper airline, Emerald (run by former senior executive, Conor McCarthy) as its new regional partner, but they are a long way from being ready to commence operations. Which leaves the employees and tens of thousands of pax stuck. The sad irony is that in the last few weeks, pax numbers had been ticking upwards. Newquay and Manchester were restarted only recently and new routes were being planned.
I am usually a big supporter of EI, but I have to say that the way EI has treated Stobart has been appalling. I don't know the business reasons behind the scenes, but to do this to an airline that had given them nearly a decade of high quality service, with great crews and a perfect safety record just strikes me as very sharp practice.
Thinking of all their crews this morning and hope they will be ok.
The airline had been trying to arrange a buyout by other parties, but this has obviously fallen through.
Aer Lingus had chosen a paper airline, Emerald (run by former senior executive, Conor McCarthy) as its new regional partner, but they are a long way from being ready to commence operations. Which leaves the employees and tens of thousands of pax stuck. The sad irony is that in the last few weeks, pax numbers had been ticking upwards. Newquay and Manchester were restarted only recently and new routes were being planned.
I am usually a big supporter of EI, but I have to say that the way EI has treated Stobart has been appalling. I don't know the business reasons behind the scenes, but to do this to an airline that had given them nearly a decade of high quality service, with great crews and a perfect safety record just strikes me as very sharp practice.
Thinking of all their crews this morning and hope they will be ok.
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